When one considers energy production and consumption, conservation is of prime concern in order to protect our habitat and for economic reasons. In most commercial settings, lights are controlled to avoid wasting unused energy and other equipment is kept off when not needed.
Although many strides have been made in energy conservation, many more are needed, particularly in our homes. For example, most current television sets have a standby mode during which power consumption has been reduced to 5-13 W. When the television set is in standby mode, it is always ready to operate as soon as a remote control command button is pressed. This simplifies the television turn on sequence, which is especially convenient for people with disabilities of various sort, and also reduces wasted time waiting for the television to operate. Considering that just in the United States, if there is one television in standby mode for every ten people, then there are 25 million such television sets. If the average television set uses 8 W in standby mode, then there are 200 MW of power waste.